I so wanted to do the ToT 10 miler and never made it down while they were still doing it (I was still in divorce hell).
As for start corrals: they used to have us strung out down Epcot Center Dr, IIRC. I neither loved or hated it, it just was, but it did seem to work. When traffic held me up and I was delayed in arriving before race start in 2011, it wasn't a big deal to keep walking down the road, join a later corral and start the race.
The corrals, then the hairpin turn to go by the stage and start: I'm not a fan. Just a lot of shuffling and jockeying for position and going around an artificial obstruction.
The whole merch scene is crazy, ditto for apparently letting people buy it all up on Day 1 so they can resell it online.
And I'll nod in agreement that rD is a victim of its own success, plus small staffing, plus getting big-footed by the parks. They haven't quite ticked enough of us off that we don't go [raises hand], similar to the parks.
Sounds like they've been successful in pulling people into the resorts and parks in otherwise down weekends, and now seem to be thinking that the runners are now in the way, as opposed to being the reason for those days being more attended than they otherwise would be. Getting cause and effects backwards...